Orishigane

Melting iron to make Ultra High Carbon Steel (UHC Steel)

Orishigane literally means to increase or decrease. It means both, and in this area of study this means you can either increase or decrease the amount of carbon in the iron/steel to get the desired material in the end. In my case, and in the case of Japanese swordsmiths of today, this means melting iron to form ultra high carbon steels, or steel above 1.3% carbon. Japanese sword smiths use Orishigane to both beef up their smelted tamahagane steel in terms of weight, and to increase or decrease carbon content. I have spent several years and have melted over 200 pounds of iron to learn how to do it correctly and yield desirable material in the end.

Orishigane, starting out as a raw lump of steel must be wrought in order to be useful. In the same way Japanese sword smiths refine their steel, this must be folded and forge welded repeatedly to drive out remaining slags and purify the steel. This folding enhances the visual appeal to the final product when polished correctly and gives blades added value due to the skillset involved in making it, refining it and incorporating it into blades.

I will have some of this available for sale in the future either in raw form or billet form.